Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Status of the book

I thought this might be a good time, with the launching of my new The Homework Trap Facebook page, to bring people up to date on the status of the book. The book is complete and has been fully copy edited. I received the mock-up from the publisher. A mock-up is an initial layout of the book, the first chapter or two, so that I could review how the book would present visually. We made some minor adjustments regarding the actual size of the book (there are several standard book sizes), but outside of that, the layout came out very well. The book is now back in the publisher's hands to complete the entire layout. I'll do a final review for editing and last minute changes, but, frankly, I don't expect there to be any or many. Once that is done, the book will be ready for production, once the cover is done. You've probably seen the front cover. The only issues for the cover now involve finishing the spine, once we know exactly how large it will be, and adding the pre-publication blurbs. I posted one, from Sara Bennett, on my website . I just received a review from Etta Kralovec, which I'll try to post tonight when I get time. I'm waiting for a couple of other back cover blurbs, but once that's done, the book should be ready to go. I think it will be on Amazon.com before the end of the February, and available on the Kindle a week or two later. So that's where things stand. I appreciate everyone who has expressed an interest in the book, and certainly welcome your efforts to share what I'm doing, with people you know. I believe that no less than 10% and up to 25% of all kids have serious homework problems. I read somewhere that nearly 50% of families have had all-out screaming matches over homework, at least once, but I don't consider that a good measure of being homework-trapped. Anyone who has had kids knows that situations come up where parents and children clash. The issue with being homework-trapped is not the occasional battle, not the occasional missed assignment, not parental concerns that society is giving children too much to do (I would refer you back to Sara Bennett, Etta Kralovec, and others for that), but for those family which get intractably caught in a negatively spiraling situation where homework dominates the home, and parent-teacher efforts to get the child going only seem to make matters worse.